Wireless

Jul 4 2010

Star Wars Cantina HD… Diner Dash with blue milk

Mobile Photo Jul 4 2010 6 28 49 PM 225x300 Star Wars Cantina HD… Diner Dash with blue milkHave you ever wanted to run your own wretched hive of scum and villainy? Have you ever wanted to utter the words, “Hey! Your droids—we don’t serve their kind here.”? If you’re an iPhone or especially an iPad user, your dream has come true with Star Wars: Cantina HD.

Star Wars Cantina HD by THQ Wireless is a Star Wars themed Diner-Dash-style game where you play the beehive hairdo’d Nia Adea and do your best to keep the never ending rush of customers (jawas, moisture farmers… the occasional Hutt) happy. It’s all about speed, accuracy and meeting the daily quota.

As you progress through career mode, you’ll be given the opportunity to make upgrades to the cantina, bringing in more tables and customer-attracting decor.

As I write this, it occurs to me that the game is not particularly Star-Wars-like. Yes, it takes place in the Star Wars Universe and, if you like these kinds of games, it’s fun enough. But when I was running around in my backyard with my friends, beating each other up with brightly painted cardboard tubes from the cores of my Mom’s Christmas wrapping paper rolls, I was Darth Vader or Han Solo, maybe Luke Skywalker. None of us was calling dibs on getting to pretend to be the bartender. This is the kind of stuff that made Luke all whiny and long to join the rebellion.

I must admit, there is a struggle between the forces of good and of evil in the cutscenes of career mode where each day brings a new challenge. It’s just that it’s not the epic struggle that is the Star Wars trademark. I’m not hearing John Williams’ score playing as I imagine Nia Adea gazing whistfully at the twin suns of Tatooine. It’s just not there.

Fun, nice to look at, but not a blockbuster for me.

Still, at $4.99, it’s better than Phantom Menace.

Which Star Wars character did you always pretend to be? Were you the bartender? Leave me a comment below.

By RickMacMerc • Featured, gaming, Geek News, iOS, iPad, iPhone, News • 1 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apr 27 2009

Building a mini DJ

The media capabilities of the Mac mini make it quite the party animal. This certainly isn’t the only way to rock the party with your mini, but it is the only way I’m going to detail for you here.

What you’ll need

  • Your mini
  • Wireless option of your choice (Bluetooth/Airport)
  • Another Mac (a laptop preferred) or Bluetooth phone for wireless control
  • Video projector, preferably with DVI input)
  • Mini-jack to RCA cable
  • Amp/mixer and speaker system
  • USB mic

The projector and audio hardware are available at many rental stops. If you have any ties to a college campus, they are ideal places to rent projectors inexpensively.

miniDJ Building a mini DJ

If the rental guy fails to mention it, I should say that video burn-in is death to projectors, so you’ll want to have a screen saver going on your mini.

So, let’s put it together. It is a good general rule with audio equipment to start with all levels at zero. In order to get all the preamp equalization we can from iTunes, you’ll want to bring your iTunes and speaker-output levels to about 75% and adjust the mixer or amp accordingly.

I’m not going to get too deep on software here, but you’ll want to run a remote control solution. For Bluetooth control from your mobile phone, grab Salling Clicker ($19.95) or Romeo (Free). To modify the playlist, and iTunes, from another Mac get iHam on iRye (Free) or netTunes ($19.95). Each one of these are well documented, so I’ll leave you with those.

Now, to give you a voice we’ll use a USB mic. Utilities like LineIn can help mix your mic with the music. And, I don’t want to encourage too much of this, but this mic will open up the floor for some karaoke, provided you bring the music. Oh, and please don’t send me any tapes.

Put it all together and you’re rocking. And this is just the beginning. Don’t get bored – there are plenty of visuals out there, many of which are controllable live via keyboard shortcuts.

Brian

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Apr 27 2009

mini WebCam Secutiry System

The mini’s small footprint and low cost make it perfect for dedicated tasks. In this tutorial, we’ll set up a wireless surveillance system.

miniwebcam mini WebCam Secutiry System

What you’ll need:

Hardware

Software

  • Evological’s EvoCam (shareware $25)

Now we’ll put it all together. I selected the Hawking camera because it is a low-cost, full-featured camera, accessible and configurable via web browser. The camera itself supports 640×480 resolution and 20 fps. Unlike many other network cameras, this one uses a Java applet rather than ActiveX to load images, another perk to Mac users (Check out Hawkings line of wired and wireless network cameras here).

But, we will only rely on the web interface for configuration. You’ll need to attach the camera via network cable and get on the same subnet to configure the camera. Settings will differ between cameras, but you will have to set up the camera to access your wireless network and give it an IP.

Once you’ve used the web interface to verify that your camera is working, it’s time to install EvoCam. From within EvoCam, you can add the network camera using its IP address and compatible settings.

EvoCam1 mini WebCam Secutiry System

The Hawking works using the D-Link M-JPEG settings (this camera is not officially supported by Evological, but works due to the common M-JPEG format). EvoCam works using default camera settings, but I’d advise setting the frame rate manually via the web interface, as this can prevent disconnects.

EvoCam2 mini WebCam Secutiry System

Once up and running, you can use EvoCam to configure image and movie archiving, uploading (using FTP/SFTP) and web sharing. Most network cameras have their own built-in webserver, but you can also use EvoCam to view your webcam from the ‘net (provided you properly configure port mapping on your router). If you went the wired route, you can do the same through EvoCam.

Now, depending on preference you can set up your webcam to broadcast your fishbowl or watch your stockpile of vintage Macintosh machines. Both the Hawking HNC320W and EvoCam support multiple cameras, so the setup is very scalable.

Brian

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